White Calls Coker Promotions “Failures”

In the midst of a deposition for an antitrust lawsuit brought against the UFC, Dana White made it quite clear that he does not buy into Scott Coker’s ability as the head of an MMA promotion.

In a deposition from 2017, the UFC President would bury the Bellator head’s abilities, labeling all of Coker’s promotional endeavors as “failures.”

UFC president Dana White has always kept fairly quiet when asked about Bellator MMA president and Strikeforce founder Scott Coker, but most recently in a deposition White took aim at the former Zuffa employee, stating all promotions Coker has been affiliated with have been “failures.”

The suit brought by former UFC fighters Cung Le, Nathan Quarry, and Jon Fitch was filed in December 2014, would see White asked about Coker’s involvement in the Strikeforce promotion.

The focus of the question would be regarding the level of talent that the promotion was bringing in, such as Nick Diaz, Fabricio Werdum, Miesha Tate, Ronda Rousey, and others.

“Yeah. What is crazy is you just laid out for me how horrible they were at promoting,” the UFC head would say under oath. “[That’s] amazing. If you can’t turn those guys into stars and run your business, you should probably get into another line of work.”

While Strikeforce was a major threat, and would air on traditional television before the UFC’s deal with FOX, the UFC would buy the promotion in March 2011. Coker would run the promotion under the Zuffa banner until it was dissolved in 2013.

While Coker would prop up fighters like Rousey and Tate, as well as get a deal with Viacom and CBS to air their events, White insisted none of the fighters were household names until joining the UFC.

“Look at what everybody has done in Strikeforce,” White said. “It’s just, these guys don’t know how to promote. It’s not what they’re good at. When you have Ronda Rousey and you can’t turn her into a star, you should probably go open a restaurant or something.”